kb57
Well-known member
I used to live in an old terraced cottage with coal fires - the bedroom had its own fireplace and chimney. One morning my ex-wife and I were woken up to a western jackdaw flapping around the room, distributing black soot everywhere. We'd had a cowl fitted to the main chimney, as otherwise they'd just drop sticks down until it was completely blocked in an attempt to build a nest.
We upgraded to a newer house and I dug a pond - one day we had two male southern hawker dragonflies which were involved in a territorial dispute chasing each other around the living room.
On our travels, best we had was a common kingfisher fly into a houseboat on the Dal Lake, Kashmir, and perch on the arm of the chintzy sofa right in front of us, before flying off again. Perhaps less welcome was another chimney-borne visitor, in Haputale, Sri Lanka - what I'm fairly certain was a black rat scurried around on the hearth or a while, then disappeared back into the fireplace. I believe this is my only sighting of black rat though, so in terms of bird and mammal ticks it's more significant than the kingfisher .
We upgraded to a newer house and I dug a pond - one day we had two male southern hawker dragonflies which were involved in a territorial dispute chasing each other around the living room.
On our travels, best we had was a common kingfisher fly into a houseboat on the Dal Lake, Kashmir, and perch on the arm of the chintzy sofa right in front of us, before flying off again. Perhaps less welcome was another chimney-borne visitor, in Haputale, Sri Lanka - what I'm fairly certain was a black rat scurried around on the hearth or a while, then disappeared back into the fireplace. I believe this is my only sighting of black rat though, so in terms of bird and mammal ticks it's more significant than the kingfisher .